The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 95 No. 4 2013

Competition Policy and Productivity Growth: An Empirical Assessment

Paolo Buccirossi¹; Lorenzo Ciari²; Tomaso Duso³; Giancarlo Spagnolo⁴; Cristiana Vitale⁵

¹ LEAR · ² European Bank for Reconstruction and Development · ³ Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics, Heinrich-Heine University · ⁴ SITE, Tor Vergata, and CEPR, Stockholm School of Economics · ⁵ OECD

Abstract

This paper estimates the impact of competition policy on total factor productivity growth for 22 industries in twelve OECD countries over 1995 to 2005. We find a positive and significant effect of competition policy as measured by created indexes. We provide results based on instrumental variables estimators and heterogeneous effects to support the causal nature of the established link. The effect is particularly strong for specific aspects of competition policy related to its institutional setup and antitrust activities. It is also strengthened by good legal systems, suggesting complementarities between competition policy and the efficiency of law enforcement institutions.

DOI

10.1162/rest_a_00304

Volume

95

Issue

4

Pages

1324-1336

Language

en

Sources

openalex crossref

Cite

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